By M. U. Adikwu
08034378988; adikwum@yahoo.com
Man’s Disappointment with God
There are times whereby it is actually man that is disappointed with God. Why does God not act when He is supposed to? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Why should the good man suffer at all? At most times, it is even the ungodly that even suffers less. This is a question that even the Psalmist had to ask (Psalm 73). Some people are so disappointed with life events that they even “remain restless” in their graves or do I say men think that they remain restless in their graves? No wonder people talk about ‘rest in peace’ (RIP) when a man dies. Or do I say that those alive plead with them to remain in peace?
Many psychosomatic disorders are due to these disappointments in life especially when men think that God should intervene and He does not seem to do so. Many have died from such ailments while others have committed suicide. Many of the suicide cases we hear about in
advanced countries are disappointment-related. It may be nice to look at some examples where man thinks God may be responsible or should have intervened in certain disasters.
A newly-wedded couple went on a honey moon only for one of the couples to get drowned. Another set of newly-weds perished in a plane crash. We hear of people who after defending their PhD thesis die in auto crashes the same week or even a few weeks later. Others are
taken away by what is often referred to as “brief illnesses’ after an excellent achievement in life. It is also a common occurrence that the only boy of a family is taken away by the cold hands of death just before his 20 th birth day. Worst still the only child of a family is snatched away by the cold hands of death at an early age leaving the couple childless.
There are also cases where an entire family perishes in one disaster or the other leaving no memory of them at all. A man who has never made love to any woman but in his first attempt he contracts one deadly disease while another who has been a womanizer from his youth has no such experiences. A well-loved football team that has also played very well loses a football match which clearly should have been to their favour. In a nation where religion is very popular, members of one religion wonder why God allows infidels to come to power through
elections and other means.
A pastor, while preaching in a church, collapses and dies. Many just people are punished unjustly while the unjust grow from strength to strength winning different accolades and titles in the society. A man who steals a goat is jailed for six months while another who steals billions of Naira or Dollars because he is working in a public office is jailed for two weeks at the end of which his people or admirers welcome him with fanfare. A man kills another man and is hanged after much torture in detention.
Another man leads his nation to war leading to the death of millions and at the end he becomes a hero with streets named after him. A couple who never messed-up sexually while they were young end up having difficulty in bearing children after wedding while prostitutes plead for heaven to stop them from having more than 10 children after marriage! The question every man will ask about all these is, “Does God exist?”
Those who believe in His existence become very disappointed with Him. No wonder Job’s wife
could tell his husband to curse God and die (Job 2: 8-10). To her, God has become a disappointment. The truth is that God exists but His reasons for not following our manner
of thinking are numerous. His ways are not our ways. Look at Isaiah 55: 8-11: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return
to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Yes, God’s ways are not our ways. Every unanswered prayer has an answer. If God Himself should open your eyes, you will even thank Him for the way He has answered you. The answer going the way you expect might caught your life short on the earth. He, therefore, decides to
answer in another way. Many people spoil God’s answers with even their own mouths because of what they say. When God visited Zacharias in Luke 1 and told him that his wife was
going to give birth to child and that the child would be great and he would turn many of the children of Israel to their God (Luke 1:13-16), Zacharias doubted. In fact, he even told the angel (Luke 1:18):
Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” The angel saw the danger that this question was going to pose to the deliverance of John the Baptist. The angel went ahead to introduce himself to Zacharias (Luke 1:19). This did not seem to assuage the doubt of Zacharias and the angel followed with a harsh injunction (Luke 1:20). “And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.” This is a case where God has answered a man and yet the man is thinking about his age. With God, age is useless. Is He not the one that controls age? Does He not have the power to reverse age?
The other day a person asked a question on why God was so harsh to Zacharias while He was lenient with Mary, the mother of Jesus? When the same angel visited Mary and told her that she would get a son and that His name should be called Jesus, look at what Mary said (Luke 1:34): “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” It can be seen that both of them doubted but Mary was not punished as Zacharias was. The answer lies in the difference the life of man and woman. Man is simply the foundation of every home. God takes the voice of a man as His voice. If you read Number 30, this is well explained. When a girl is in his father’s house and she is not married makes a vow, the father can cancel the vow made to God and it shall remain cancelled. If her father hears the vow and keep silent, the vow shall stand and she must honour it. If the girl is married and she makes a vow to God, and her husband cancels the vow, it shall remain cancelled.
If on the other hand, her husband keeps silent, the vow shall stand and she must fulfill it. The voice of man is like the voice of God in every matter. The blessings that Jacob made to his children and grandchildren in Genesis 48 and 49 is what is keeping Israel today. If fact, he said the authority of governance shall remain with his fourth son, Judah (Genesis 49:8-12): “Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you.
You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs [c] shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.”
Yes, today Judah is still flourishing. Jerusalem is in the land of Judah. Jesus, our Saviour, came from the tribe of Judah. Bethlehem where Jesus was born is in the land of Judah, although ceded to Palestinian, there is a might church built there. All these came from the prayers of
Jacob and his descendants upon their children. Man is the head of every woman and as such God respects the voice of man. If Zacharias had doubted physically with his voice, the birth of John the Baptist would have been prevented. That is not the case with Mary since she was a
woman. One thing is that God always answers prayers but the way may not be our way. Those that produced children in the Bible after being barren produced children that were special in various ways. Some like Samuel became special president of Israel who was a prophet, priest
and king. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. The list can go on but remember one thing. Never be disappointed with God.
Allow Him to answer you the way He chooses.
Adikwu writes from Abuja, and can be reached via 08034378988; adikwum@yahoo.com
